Houston: Named for Sam Houston, Built on Chickasaw Land

Chickasaw County was carved from lands ceded by the Chickasaw Nation and established by the Mississippi Legislature in February eighteen thirty-six. A local speculator named Joel Pinson offered land for a county seat and named it Houston, in honor of his close friend General Sam Houston, who had just led Texas to independence at the Battle of San Jacinto. The town was incorporated the following year.

When the Mobile and Ohio Railroad arrived in eighteen fifty-nine, commercial energy shifted to the town of Okolona, and Houston and Okolona eventually became co-county seats. In nineteen oh nine, Houston opened the first Carnegie Library in the state of Mississippi.